Monday, January 27, 2014

A detox? Me?

I'm not fond of the word "detox." Usually a detox plan involves not eating much and quaffing some sort of sweet and sour spicy pancake topping or a bunch of smoothies that look like the contents of a lawnmower bag.

But a few months back I agreed to take part in Dr. Mark Hyman's Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet , which comes out at the end of February (you can read a sneak peek here). The big thing about this detox is that you eat food -- three meals and two snacks a day.

Here's the detox part -- no grains, no dairy, no sugar and no caffeine. Yes, no caffeine as in no coffee.

I'm not an all-day coffee guzzler but I do enjoy a big ol' mug every morning. But this plan is aimed at breaking your addiction to sugar and starches, and caffeine is one of those triggers since it messes with your insulin balance.

That's the biggest part of the plan where I'm going to struggle so I made one concession today -- I had half a cup with a spoonful of coconut manna instead of my usual soy creamer. It was kinda Tomorrow (I swear!) I'll skip the coffee.

The morning smoothie was nice but not my usual, ie, it wasn't very sweet. It consisted of frozen strawberries, walnuts, almond butter, avocado and flax. It took a bit to get over the lack of sweetness but after awhile I got used to it and even liked it.

The plan is high in good fats and that's frankly scary for me, a reformed "diet food" eater. But darned if that smoothie kicked in 10 minutes after I drank it. I felt my hunger shut off like a faucet.

The lunches and dinners sound great -- big salads and lettuce wraps with clean protein, salmon and ratatoullie, condiments like olive tapenade and pesto.

And Dr. Hyman says it's not a "forever thing" -- this plan is a shock to your system to straighten out your hormones and brain chemistry to break your sugar addiction. It's basically a plant-based diet with some clean protein.

I just talked with Dr. Hyman on a conference call this morning to confirm one of my fears, which he says is common when you really have an addiction. You have to tough it out with the sweet thing -- no artificial sweeteners, no honey, not even stevia. It's all about turning down those reward centers in your brain, and if you're trying to make concessions like begging for stevia then, yeah, you've got a problem.

So, yeah, I've got a problem. :)

I'll let you know how it goes.

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post, but I did receive an advance copy of the book and some nutritional supplements.

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A detox? Me?

I'm not fond of the word "detox." Usually a detox plan involves not eating much and quaffing some sort of sweet and sour spicy pancake topping or a bunch of smoothies that look like the contents of a lawnmower bag.

But a few months back I agreed to take part in Dr. Mark Hyman's Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet , which comes out at the end of February (you can read a sneak peek here). The big thing about this detox is that you eat food -- three meals and two snacks a day.

Here's the detox part -- no grains, no dairy, no sugar and no caffeine. Yes, no caffeine as in no coffee.

I'm not an all-day coffee guzzler but I do enjoy a big ol' mug every morning. But this plan is aimed at breaking your addiction to sugar and starches, and caffeine is one of those triggers since it messes with your insulin balance.

That's the biggest part of the plan where I'm going to struggle so I made one concession today -- I had half a cup with a spoonful of coconut manna instead of my usual soy creamer. It was kinda Tomorrow (I swear!) I'll skip the coffee.

The morning smoothie was nice but not my usual, ie, it wasn't very sweet. It consisted of frozen strawberries, walnuts, almond butter, avocado and flax. It took a bit to get over the lack of sweetness but after awhile I got used to it and even liked it.

The plan is high in good fats and that's frankly scary for me, a reformed "diet food" eater. But darned if that smoothie kicked in 10 minutes after I drank it. I felt my hunger shut off like a faucet.

The lunches and dinners sound great -- big salads and lettuce wraps with clean protein, salmon and ratatoullie, condiments like olive tapenade and pesto.

And Dr. Hyman says it's not a "forever thing" -- this plan is a shock to your system to straighten out your hormones and brain chemistry to break your sugar addiction. It's basically a plant-based diet with some clean protein.

I just talked with Dr. Hyman on a conference call this morning to confirm one of my fears, which he says is common when you really have an addiction. You have to tough it out with the sweet thing -- no artificial sweeteners, no honey, not even stevia. It's all about turning down those reward centers in your brain, and if you're trying to make concessions like begging for stevia then, yeah, you've got a problem.

So, yeah, I've got a problem. :)

I'll let you know how it goes.

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post, but I did receive an advance copy of the book and some nutritional supplements.

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